Brexit Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has dismissed the row over lockdown parties in Downing Street as trivial “fluff”.

       Boris Johnson was facing calls to resign earlier this year over his attendance at a series of events being investigated by police for alleged breaches of Covid regulations.

       But speaking at the Conservative Spring Forum in Blackpool, Mr Rees-Mogg said the current crisis over Ukraine showed that “partygate” was not a fundamentally serious issue.

       “It is a reminder that the world is serious, that there are serious things to be discussed and serious decisons for politicians to take,” he said.

       “Whether this is about re-opening and having new licences for oil wells in the North Sea, or whether it is about getting away from the ‘wokery’ that has beset huge sections of society, nobody now cares whether using the word ‘grip’ is going to offend people.

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       “All that nonsense is shown for the trival nature of it …. I’d say the same of ‘partygate’, all of that is shown up for the disproportionate fluff of politics that it was rather than something of fundamental seriousness about the safety of the world and the established global order.”